The 25-metre blue whale beached, died and was buried in P.E.I. more than two decades ago.

The skeleton, which is longer than two city buses, will be ensconced in a specially designed glass atrium that has been nicknamed "the lantern," said Wayne Maddison, director of the university’s new Beatty Biodiversity Museum.

But before the skeleton can be put on display, it must first be exhumed.

"We were kind of wondering: If you put something in the back of your fridge 20 years ago, what would it look like if you went back and had a peek?" said Andrew Trites, director of UBC’s Marine Mammal Unit, who led a preliminary dig in December.

"I thought we’d find very pristine bones, but as we started scrapping back the layers of dirt, what we found was a very, very blue-skinned animal. It was completely covered, still in skin and blubber."

Under the flesh the bones were clean like "spare ribs," Trites said, but the smell of rotten flesh was stomach churning.